“Where’s Your Head?” by Carl Beazley: Expressions that People Would Probably Delete

Faces emerge from within faces in painter Carl Beazley’s intriguing collection “Where’s Your Head?” Eyes and lips and noses multiply – as if the viewer were stoned. Expressions are those of pain, confusion, disgust and plain craziness.

“With this project there was no real plan from the beginning, it just sort of grew as it went along,” writes Carl. “I suppose in a way, I wanted to combat the usual stern, mysterious stare you get in a lot of portraiture and go the complete opposite way with very outlandish, ridiculous faces. I used a lot of my friends in the project and I wanted to get across some of the faces and expressions that people make but wouldn’t necessarily want people to see.”

Carl Beazley

Carl developed an interesting aim. He wanted to present an alternative to the carefully curated pictures that we post on our social media profiles. He explains: “In this day and age where we can take hundreds of photos and only pick the ones where we look the best to show the world, I wanted to use some of the photos that people would never share and probably delete. I think these discarded photos are the ones that show the unique personalities, people pulling a face that only they could pull. I used a lot of Lego block-like colours to try and bring them to life a bit more. I actually kind of like the fact that they come across as a bit immature, childish and silly.”

Carl was born in 1988 and grew up in Reading, England. He is completely self-taught and began painting in the corner of his kitchen in 2012. In the summer of 2013, he converted his garage into a studio and has since exhibited work at the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts, London after being shortlisted for BBC One’s Summer Arts Competition (2014). He was also crowned the winner of Reading Arts Week (2014).

His work has been featured in prominent publications like Hi-Fructose, Cultura Colectiva and Beautiful/Decay. In 2016 he was selected as one of 25 artists to be included in the book “25 Pages: Masters of Paint” and in December, his work was displayed on the London Underground as part of Creative Debuts #ArtForTheUnderground campaign.

On his influences, Carl says: “I love artists like Francis Bacon, Picasso and Matthew Barney. There’s an artist who I really love at the moment called Rachel Maclean. She’s not afraid to use bright, bold colours and bizzare imagery to create unique, dreamlike atmospheres. Also filmmakers such as Alejandro Jodorowsky, Yorgos Lanthimos, György Pálfi…the kind of people who embrace the absurd.”

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Published by Tulika B.

Cosmopolitan soul and King's College London alum (Twitter: @TulikaBahadur89) - slowly working on a novel and a collection of short stories. Say hi at tulikabahadur@gmail.com, send all professional communication, including enquiries related to art buying, to tulika@elucidaction.com.au. View all posts by Tulika B.